Twirling in Tweed: The Rugby London Tweed Run...

Me, capturing the "Spirit" of the day...

What-ho Dames & Chaps! The Boy and I attended the Rugby London Tweed Run last Saturday - all of my last minute dashing around on Friday fell into place, so we were both more than ready for the day... phew! I'll give a quick run-down of my attire for the day - elements of which you'll see in more pictures:

Dress: Runaround Sue by Vivien of Holloway

Red Elastic Belt: Vivien of Holloway

Tweed Jacket: H&M

Pheasant Feather Brooch: Katherine Butler

Red-Seamed Stockings: Jonathan Astor

Heels: Aldo

Necklace: Dorothy Perkins

Hair Corsage: Made by me!

Rose Ring: H&M
Brown Leather Kelly Bag - Vintage

Pearl Earrings: TopShop

Nails: Thanks to O.P.I at Selfridges

(You may have noticed that the fabulous hat I bought for the day is not featured - I got my Twists re-done on the Wednesday & my hair was too big for the hat!) 

Once again, the Weather-Gods looked down on the event, as we were blessed with bright skies & crisp winter air for the day... if it had rained, I suspect there would have been a lot of damp Tweed cycling through London! Arriving at the meeting point, we were greeted with a sea of beautiful outfits and bicycles. Being in Covent Garden, there was even more of a tourist-attraction element to the day, with many people pulling out cameras and phones, snapping away. The Tweed-Runners make for a rather dashing display, so I'm sure the tourists must have enjoyed seeing us!

Ralph Lauren laid on breakfast for us all, which was a rather nice touch indeed. Men (who I'm sure were all models!) dressed in the Rugby RL colours were on hand to dish out savouries, cakes, teas & coffees to fuel us up for the ride. I must admit to being a bit too excited to eat my Muffin - there was so much going on around me, there was no room for an appetite to build up! 

After the official Tweed Run photo was taken on the steps of the Rugby Store, we had the chance to quickly catch-up with some familiar faces and meet other people taking part...

Tony and Victor, the stylish brothers  who I met last year, helping each other get ready

I loved her Brogues and bright Lipstick - sadly we didn't catch her name!

The 'Vintage News' team, looking spiffing while covering the event

The Dapper-Chaps of The Guvnors Assembly

Setting off, the route for the ride was great, taking in a few more of the tourist attractions of London. Making our way through Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square and past Buckingham Palace (where we certainly got a lot of tourist attention!), we arrived for our Tea Stop in Chelsea. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea were the sponsors of the Stop this year - they provided a wonderful spread, including some tasty little Cupcakes, and of course a nice drop of tea in China cups...

It's not Lady V unless she's drinking Tea...

It was also another chance to stop and have a good catch-up with friends on the ride with us too... and get some photos of them looking glamorous...

The Lovely Loughton Brothers John and Jim, who Piped-Up for the day

Kathryn King of BikemindedRBKC, looking like a Matinee Idol! I loved her vintage Fur Stole

With Kathryn, the gorgeous Jemma of "Help! My Chain Came Off" and the Dapper Mark Ames of the "i b i k e l o n d o n" blog

During the Tea Stop, I had the pleasure of meeting Fleur de Guerre, who is absolutely stunning and simply oozes elegance and grace!

Strike a pose ladies...

The kind of accessorising that I love - when your Pashley Matches your Outfit!

Fleur looked beautiful in her Ralph Lauren velvet jacket, H&M Blouse, Tarantula Clothing Capris & those lovely red leather gloves and tights! I must admit to having the nicest Hat-Envy...!

We finished the Tweed Run at the exclusive Caledonian Club in Belgravia. It was the ultimate luxury end to the day - an opulent members-only club, with some very expensive Whisky, Teas and live entertainment which was fantastic!

The shin-dig at the Caledonian also gave me the chance to finally meet one of the founders of the Tweed Run, Ted Young-Ing...

Another spectacular suit from Mr Tweed Run himself

After attending the last ride in April and having a blast, it was fantastic to say hello and have a chat with one of the forces behind such a fabulous event.

You can view more photos from the day on my Flickr Stream - again, a massive thank you to The Boy for being my brilliant Photographer for the day and for my blog!

It was a brilliant day from start to finish, and already I can't wait for the next one in April... is it crazy that I've already started thinking about my outfit for the day?! Pip-Pip!

The Tweed Run 2011 - A Beautiful Day!

Riders 091 & 134 :)

We certainly got our Tweed on!

What Ho dear readers! I must say, The Tweed Run has to be the best & most stylish cycling event in London... utterly spiffing!

Riding towards St Paul's in the splendid sunshine, I was filled with excitement - every so often we'd encounter other participants heading there, who dinged their bells or tooted their horns to say "Pip Pip!"  This was an understatement of how friendly everyone there was going to be :) Even though I knew that it was a big event, it was still breathtaking to see so many cyclists together in Paternoster Square all decked out in seriously chic Tweed...

Cycling through the roads of Central London was unbelievable! The Marshals did a tremendous job of getting us all through without incident (I doff my Tweed Cloche to you all!) and having to deal with any slightly disgruntled drivers along the way... although it was rather refreshing to have some motorists beeping to compliment us!

There was always an opportunity to chat to people along the ride: just cycling beside someone, conversation was struck-up almost instantly. It was such a happy and jolly vibe which is rather hard to put into words - every ones smiles said it all!

Of course, I must give you a bit of my Cycle-Chic for the day:

Hat: Anna Chocola

Pheasant Feather Brooch (on hat): Katherine Butler

Sunglasses: Ray-Ban

Pearl Earrings: Topshop

Pearl Bracelets: Dorothy Perkins
Ring: Dorothy Perkins

Gold Locket & Chain: borrowed from Mum

Vintage Louis Vuitton Silk Scarf: also borrowed from Mum

Blouse: ASOS
Tights: M&S

Tweed Shorts: Mango

Brogues: Topshop

Bag: Topshop

It was a truly marvelous experience & I am still smiling from ear-to-ear about just how great it was. It was also lovely to have met fellow Tweeters and Bloggers, who I hope to see again soon. Also, I managed to cycle alongside a chap by the name of Ewan McGregor... 

The day is certainly best explained in visuals, so please toodle along to our rather spiffing set of photos of the day from me and The Boy, which you can view on Flickr:

The Tweed Run 2011: The Most Stylish Ride in London

Hope to be back next year to take part... in the meantime, Tally Ho old bean - it's been amazing!

Ready for the Run...

I finally have my outfit together for the Tweed Run!

The Shoes and the Bag were the last items needed to complete it... almost had a breakdown at work today as the delivery didn't show up until 16:00 - and our Post Room closes at 16:30!

Just a quick iPhone picture of it - there will of course be proper pictures and details (including accessories) on the day, but this is a taster of it :)

Again, if anyone wants to meet / say "hello" on Saturday, drop me a message on Twitter (@ladyvelo82) or email me using the link on the blog... see you on Saturday... Pip Pip! :) 

Cycle Saturday: Loving East London...

It may not have been blazing hot, but finally the sunshine touched East London over the weekend. Me and The Boy took advantage of this & got on our bikes for a Cycle Saturday. It just so happened it was the weekend the Tweed Run registration packs were ready for collection, so cycling to Shoreditch to get them made perfect sense!

As we were out so early, there was no way that we couldn't do a bit of breakfast and food shopping... of course ;) Taking a leisurely cycle via Tower Bridge, our first stop was Maltby Street in Bermondsey to buy the MOST delicious doughnuts (and Sourdough Bread) you will ever eat in London from St John...

Basket loaded up, next stop was Monmouth Coffee for a "light" breakfast...

and then onto Aubin and Wills in Shoreditch to collect our registration packs, as seen hanging on my Pashley :)

The cycle home was fantastic, even if it did start raining half way... that didn't spoil the feeling of being in London, enjoying weather and being able to ride in a T-Shirt and jeans at last! So, the cycle-chic for the day...

Glasses: Christian Dior

Dagger Necklace: Tatty Devine for Charlotte Olympia

T-Shirt: Lanvin for H&M

Cardi: New Look

Bag: Punkyfish

Bracelet: See by Chloé

Jeans: Topshop

Shoes: Melissa for Vivienne Westwood

The dash for Tweed...

I got a place on The Tweed Run 2011 :)

Registration for it was an intense affair and the places went faster than I could have imagined. I knew that it was going to be busy - but I had no idea how fast it would go.

I'd managed to register by 11:57 & had a bit of a tweet about it after...

... and then by 12:03...

The Q&A Post on Registration that Tweed Run did earlier in the week said something about being on the page a "bit before noon" for registration. When I loaded up the site at about 9a.m (I had to be up early on Saturday morning for something else anyway) I saw a message saying it would be open at 11:55... so the early morning plans I had got a bit sidetracked by me being glued to my Mac from 11:45 & hitting Refresh... a lot. Within the 2 minute window of getting registered, I was given Rider #91 & The Boy (who also got a place roughly at the same time as me) was Rider #134.

The Tweed Run team quickly gave an understandable explanation and very sincere apology as to why registration had to open a tad earlier than Noon. It seems that next year, a lottery-system might be used, which gives an idea of how popular the Tweed Run is becoming.

I can't deny I'm thrilled and feel very lucky that I managed to get a place for this... looking forwards to meeting new faces on the day & hopefully meeting Bloggers / Tweeters who I "know" that are coming along too... x

Tweed Hopes...

Image from Tweed Run

Tweed Run 2011 is coming... and I want to be a part of it!

The 3rd annual Tweed Run is happening in London on the 9th April 2011 and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that me and my Pashley will be there. The coverage & pictures of it last year (thanks to the Tweed Run site and bloggers such as ibikelondon) looked fantastic & convinced me that I'd take part in the next one.

Registration is £5 and opens at midday on Saturday 26th Feb (this weekend) - and all proceeds go to bikes4Africa! I know that places go pretty fast... so that will be me glued to my MacBook in the morning :)

I'm already sourcing out Tweed for the occasion so that I'm prepared (and it's a fabulous excuse to add to the wardrobe too!) Any other Cyclists going to try for a place? Lemme know if you are!